Journal: News & Comment

Save your wireless money

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Some hotels provide free high-speed (or sometimes even wireless) Internet, but a fair number still don't. One example is the hotel in Saskatoon where I'm staying for a night. It's a nice place, but they charge a fee for Internet access.

I'm traveling with a colleague who has a room across the hall. Normally, if we both wanted to get our laptops online, we'd each have to pay. But instead, he paid for Internet in his room, then went to his Mac OS X System Preferences and chose Sharing > Internet. He set up to share his wired Ethernet Internet connection via his built-in AirPort wireless card. I used my ancient wireless PowerBook and found his new network instantly.

Reception isn't so great with both our doors closed, but now we have two-for-one Internet, and mine is wireless to boot. In theory, anyone in the nearby rooms (and possibly adjacent floors) would also be able to share the connection. Not so great for the hotel's revenue, but good for us.

Incidentally, an AirPort Express unit or something similar would do the same job and make us both wireless.

All the more reason to make free wireless part of the room rate, I say.

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